RECENT revelations about the new £5 note containing animal fat have sparked outrage throughout Manchester’s Vegan community.
The announcement was made in response to several tweets asking for confirmation as to whether the new note contained tallow in it.
In reply to the question the Bank of England have officially released a reply saying that ‘the new note contains traces of tallow in the polymer pallets used in the base substrate of the polymer £5 notes’.
The ‘series F’ £5 notes were introduced on the 13th of September, fourteen years after the paper £5 note was released, with the new design of polymer.
Prior to the new notes being issued, the Bank of England released a statement on their website which read: “Polymer banknotes are cleaner, more secure, and more durable than paper banknotes. They will provide enhanced counterfeit resilience, and increase the quality of banknotes in circulation.”
However, the new information has sparked outrage amongst the Vegan community, particularly in Manchester due to the large amount of Vegan’s in the region, 4996 of which are part of a Vegan community on Facebook.
The Eighth Day Café which is located on Oxford Road in Manchester commented on how they felt, saying: “It is indeed a scandal that the Bank of England has produced a note using animal fat and the questions that remain are, why this fat was included and can the note be made using a vegetable fat instead?”
This is indeed something which the Bank of England will have to take into perspective going forward, with the scandal being fuelled further by the creation of a petition by Doug Maw in the hope that it will get enough signatures to create a change in the note by ‘ceasing to use animal products in the production of currency that we have to use’.
According to a survey carried out earlier this year by the ‘Vegan Society’, there are three and a half times as many vegans as there were in 2006, making it the fastest growing lifestyle movement Britain has seen.
Dan Willis, 25, a student from Salford University has been an active vegan for 2 years and felt the use of animal fats in the notes was unnecessary.
He said: “Considering the growth of veganism and how much popularity it has got, doing something like this is going backwards.”
‘The vegan culture already worry enough that normal everyday foods are a pain to eat-so to have animal fat in something which is so common is definitely not the best for anyone.’
A member of the Vegan and Vegetarian society in Manchester, Nicole Charlotte, a teacher at CCCU and Phd student added on the matter that she was surprised when the news was announced.
She said: “The truth is there is still animal fats in many of our products today, I hope now The Bank of England is aware of peoples dismay they will remove the animal fats from the £5 notes.”
Since it was published on Change.org two days ago 110,270 people have signed the petition in the hope that the public’s views will be taken seriously.
For more information on the petition and to find out how you can help click HERE
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